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With the creation of linguistic states, a large percentage of our citizens spend their entire life in their native state and have neither the need nor the urge to learn any other language but their own. Those who go for jobs outside their native state normally try to learn the language of their adopted state.
Often, the exception to the above are many well educated Hindi speaking Indians (WEHSI) who find it extremely upsetting that majority of people in south India do not speak Hindi. This article is primarily addressed to those WEHSI who move to south for jobs. You have so far lived in an environment where except for written (or keyed in) office work you do not use English. Even people who are very proficient in English in Hindi areas do not use it for social interactions.
One reason for this is you have been told in your educational institutions that Hindi is our Rashtra Bhasha (national language). As per our constitution this is incorrect. In other words, there is no legal compulsion for a south Indians to learn Hindi.
Most graduates in North India have learnt only Hindi and English. Similarly, most south Indians graduates learn only their mother tongue and English. You will agree it is not fair to tell south Indians to learn three languages when you learn only two. Especially now that school children must deal with a very heavy syllabus everywhere.
Please remember that it is not the intention of south Indians to make life difficult for you by not learning Hindi. It is not a necessity in their daily lives.
Often WEHSI complain that often south Indians treat them with disdain and tend to ridicule them behind their back. Though undesirable, this is a part of human nature everywhere. For example, Indians living abroad make many snide remarks about whites and blacks. Once you communicate in the local language, much of this bad behaviour will disappear.
My suggestions to you would be that you should learn the relevant south Indian language if you are going to be here for more than six months. If you are a tourist here, speak English and you will get responses in broken English at least.
English has been in India for 400 years now and we Indians have “naturalised” the language just as Australians, Singaporeans, South Africans and Americans. Additionally, it has helped many Indians to do well in professional fields. For me Indian English is one more Indian Language. However I am perfectly accepting of the fact that many Indians do not want to learn English. But what I am unable to accept is the refusal to learn a local Indian language even when you live in the state where it is spoken.
As for communicating with Hindi speaking Indians, south Indians do learn Hindi whenever they live for sufficiently long periods in North India. In 1950s when south Indians went to Delhi and Mumbai for clerical jobs, they learnt Hindi and many became very good in that language. I do not accept that south Indian languages are beyond the learning abilities of north Indians. Marwaris are a good example of the same. Now we also have many civil servants of from Hindi states in southern capitals who speak the local languages fluently. Many from North work in south India in restaurants, construction and skilled trades. They learn the local language within months. Our cook is from Jharkhand and she speaks fluent Tamil. Maybe if there is hunger in the belly, learning becomes easy. You may be surprised to know many southern actresses are of Hindi origin but are capable of acting in south movies without resorting to dubbing. Ms Khushbu is good example.
I believe the percentage of the population capable of speaking Hindi in non-Hindi cum non-south states is also on the decline. Being an old man, I see changes over the years. I have lived all over our country and do visit some parts even now. I think many more people spoke Hindi in these states during the decades of 60s and 70s. This was because Hindi cinema was the main Indian language cinema (Bengali and Tamil were perhaps second and third) for most of us. That has changed now. Also, the linguistic states were just finding their foothold. I am observing a gradual change. But I suppose people connected with travel and commerce will continue to have some Hindi knowledge for the foreseeable future.
The last point I wish to make is that many countries have multiple languages as official languages and have not suffered.
I felt I should state my views on this matter. This issue is sensitive and I believe I cannot convince most who want Hindi as our national language.
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